Natural Gas

It sounds like an engineer's pipe dream - a 9,000-kilometre-long pipeline stretching from Turkmenistan in Central Asia to Hong Kong and bringing energy to the homes of more than 500 million people along the way.

Sino Oil and Gas, a partner of PetroChina in a project to extract natural gas trapped inside coal seams in Shanxi province, plans to spend US$30 million this year on well drilling, pipeline construction and the expansion of a gas processing plant.

Kunlun Energy, PetroChina's gas distribution and infrastructure unit, plans to invest HK$22 billion this year building gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing plants, as more petrol- and diesel-powered vehicles are converted to run on natural gas.

Some of the barriers to faster development on the mainland of shale gas - natural gas trapped between shale rocks - can be mitigated by policy incentives, technology, and supply chain management, according to an energy executive.

Mainland infrastructure firms are well positioned to bid for the construction of natural gas-fired power plants in Iraq, but they need to work harder to catch up with Western rivals that have had a head start, according to an infrastructure lawyer.

Authorities denied rumours of a nationwide hike in natural gas prices after long queues were seen outside natural gas selling stations in a number of cities across China.

“This is absolutely groundless,” 21st Century Business Herald quoted an official from the National Development and Reform Commission as saying on Tuesday, who said he had already answered numerous inquiries.

The warning of hefty tariff increases by the city's top energy supplier is a case of déjà vu. After imposing a 5.9 per cent tariff increase early this year, CLP reiterated that electricity prices could rise 40 per cent within a few years, saying the switch to natural gas has pushed up fuel costs. The gloomy picture should not come as a big surprise. The power giant first sounded the warning last year after being forced to cut back its annual increase substantially. The rhetoric is nothing new but it is guaranteed to generate outrage, coming from a monopoly that earned HK$8.3 billion last year.

The mainland produces no commercial quantities of shale gas, yet it has set a target of 80 billion cubic metres (bcm) by 2020, or 23 per cent of total expected demand. Output in 2020 is likely to be 18 bcm. That is more pessimistic than a year ago, when the forecast was 23 bcm.

Gas imports by sea and pipeline will rise 24 per cent in 2013, according to China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation's biggest energy explorer. Crude purchases will climb 7.3 per cent and account for 58 per cent of total consumption, CNPC estimated in its annual research report released on January 30.

Environment officials tried yesterday to ease fears of drastic electricity price increases in the next few years, saying the city might not need to double the amount of natural gas used by 2015 as was previously predicted.

Friends of the Earth successfully mobilised the public to save 52 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) in three months in our Power Smart contest while Hongkong Electric has failed to save as little as three million kWh.

Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing said that there is not much room for adjustments in the interim review of the Scheme of Control Agreements this year.